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Tanzania: A Developing Nation Encourages the Watchdog Role of the News Media
By John Virtue

The government of the East African nation of Tanzania, one of the poorest in the world, has been publicly encouraging something unheard of in many developing countries: the active role of the press as watchdog of democracy.

Since one-party rule ended in 1995, the government has pledged itself to good governance and transparency and lifted the monopoly enjoyed by the official press.

Julius Nyerere

But this change has caught much of the news media ill prepared to assume a new role in an atmosphere of press freedom, because of the proliferation of the media. According to ethics commissioner W. J. Maina, over the past five years Tanzania has gone from a virtual handful of government media to 19 daily newspapers, 78 weeklies, 140 monthlies, 10 radio stations and six television stations. There were no television stations in 1995.

The government held an unprecedented two-day workshop in February of top government officials, media executives, working journalists and academics to discuss the role of the press in good governance. Opening the workshop, Minister of State Bakari Mbonde said that the government attaches great importance to the watchdog role that the news media must play in a democracy.

The workshop drafted a series of resolutions which President Benjamin Mkapa's chief secretary, M. Y. C. Lumbanga, told the participants would be accepted by the government. The resolutions included a review of the Newspapers Act and the Broadcasting Act to strip them of special sanctions already included in other legislation.

The Newspapers Act, passed in 1976, can be – and is – frequently used by the government to close down newspapers on the grounds they have been violating "professional ethics" of the news media, which bothers advocates of freedom of the press. Information minister Muhammed Seif Khatib revealed in late November that the government had taken legal action 50 times against newspapers for publishing "false" and "inflammatory" stories. Usually the publication is suspended for a week.

Media executive Jenerali Ulimwengu told the workshop that although Tanzania had adopted a multi-party system, "we are still a long way from being able to say we live in a democracy." He added: "The media has, in effect, assumed the mantle of the opposition, much to the chagrin of politicians of the ruling party who would have preferred the absence of a strong political opposition to be made even more 'secure' by a blunt and pliant media."

As for the watchdog role, Ulimwengu said, "The media have taken up the anti-corruption crusade with verve, and although they still lack the requisite skills of investigative journalism, they have managed to uncover a few murky dealings, and such exposures have sometimes led to resignations or terminations of political and administrative careers."

The media's ability to monitor government activities has been hurt by the problems created by the sudden growth of the industry:

• A shortage of trained journalists; the number of working journalists has almost tripled from 150 in 1995 to just over 400 today; less than half have any formal journalism training.
  
• An advertising market in a country with a per capita annual income of US$730 that cannot support all of the new media.
• Newspaper circulation which does not exceed 14,000 for any ESPAÑOL-language newspaper, reaching 50-60,000 for some of the Swahili dailies.
• Unethical practices by some media owners who subvert their product in order to gain under-the-table income.
• Low reporter salaries, some below the minimum wage, that is, less than US$40 a month; a good salary in television, where wages are highest, is US$250 a month.
• Unethical practices by some journalists, including blackmail, to obtain additional income.
• Bribery of journalists by some politicians seeking favorable press coverage.
• The absence of veteran role models in the newsroom who, in times past, would train young journalists.

Lack of training and professionalism led last year to a one-week suspension for one newspaper – the Swahili-language Majira – for publishing an erroneous story that cabinet ministers and top government officials were going to receive salaries of up to US$11,000 a month. Participants at the workshop said the reporter had failed to check his facts and there was no editor to challenge the story.

The ability to check facts is exacerbated by budgetary constraints at many of the media. One participant said that some media can't afford long-distance telephone calls.

The Tanzanian School of Journalism is trying to remedy the lack of training by offering short-term certificates as well as degrees in journalism. However, it is currently only graduating 30 students a year.

There was discussion in the resolution committees at the workshop about establishing minimum educational levels for journalists, a type of licensing. However, this was not approved. Had such a provision been approved and enforced retroactively, many media would have been obliged to close because the majority of their employees would not have met the educational requirements.

Whatever the problems facing the Tanzanian media, they're good problems, inasmuch as they have their origins in the end of one-party rule and government control of the news media.

(John Virtue, is the publisher of Pulso del Periodismo and the deputy director of the International Media Center at Florida International University. A native of Canada, he spent 17 years with United Press International in Latin America before becoming executive editor of the daily newspaper El Mundo, San Juan, Puerto Rico.)

(March 12, 2000